Little Brothers
by LostInTheDreams
Summary: I've never hated dogs or any animal for that matter. That doesn't mean I've ever thought of owning a pet and Mokuba is still young. He'd never shown an interest before. I really didn't want a puppy...


There may be some inaccuracies. I haven't seen anything that happened after the Leviathan and I haven't read what season 0 covers all the way through as well as having never seen the subbed and unedited version of episodes.

* * *

 **Little Brothers**

 **...**

"Properly trained, a man can be dog's best friend."  
\- Corey Ford

...

"I want a puppy," Mokuba begged once more. As always, I turned him aside.

"You'll never take care of it. We don't keep so many people on staff at the office to take care of a dog." I didn't want to have to deal with one back at the house whenever I decided to return either. I rather liked the room I had adjacent to my main office at Kaiba Corp. The couch was more comfortable than many here realized and I almost preferred it to a bed. Because of my habit of staying over, Mokuba often spent his time at the office as well and an office was no place for a dog.

"He can be a guard dog. I'm sure the security officers won't mind."

"Then we'd buy an already trained dog, not a puppy."

Mokuba pouted, much like the creature itself, and his shoulders fell a little lower. I hated when he did that. I sighed and put a few fingers up to my forehead as I leaned on my arm that I shifted to rest on my desk. I'd get back to my computer screen in a moment. "A dog is too much trouble. Why don't you try out something smaller first, like a hamster or gerbil?"

"Because I don't want a mouse, I want a puppy. Something that will play with me."

I knew I didn't do much of that and Mokuba, even with little education, was a good as some of the programmers that I hired. We both had jobs here, even if his own were whenever he decided. As such, he didn't get out much ti play with kids his own age. I grew up like that fine but Mokuba wasn't me and he didn't have to be.

"You're still only a high school graduate. Why don't you try going back to school instead? I'm not sure how much cleaner other people will be than a dog, but I won't have to worry about taking care of them when you can't then."

"I don't want to go back to school either, and I don't need to and you know it. Muraki-san is teaching me all I need to know and your programs are already more complicated than whatever any university will be handling."

"Yes, but it's always best to start with basics."

"You're only a high school graduate too."

My fingers twitched at my side. Much like Mokuba, schooling had not helped me and I surpassed my teachers ever since a young age. That and, whatever that man wanted to call my 'teaching', nothing was comparable to a university besides some of the lessons. Once I liked something I dove into it. Technology was a lot easier to get my hands around than a person, though I liked to think I had people down pretty well as well. "That may be but it was because I had to run the company. You do not."

Mokuba scuffed his feet, still standing before me. I was tempted to go back to my computer and let him play his game. He wouldn't win. I lifted my hand and moved my laptop back in front of me and Mokuba scuffed his foot on the floor again. I didn't move to type before letting out a breath once more. "What can I say to you to make you get rid of this idea? A dog is too much trouble and we would have no place to take care of him."

"We? Seto, I thought you didn't want a dog."

There wasn't any way it wouldn't end up becoming my problem or at least a hassle in my life if Mokuba got one, and we were rarely apart. That made it _our_ problem and Mokuba knew it. "How about we try something smaller? If you can take care of that, I'll think about it."

Mokuba huffed to himself but turned and ran out. "Okay, Seto. But you'd better mean it."

I went back to my work after that. He didn't bother me the rest of the day and I was able to get some of the basics down for the new computer firewall I was setting up. My own was good but there were better hackers trying to get in every day and I was going to stay one step ahead of them.

…

I don't know how much later it was, though Mokuba has told me three weeks, but it was during lunch that he knocked on my door. I didn't tell him to come in so I knew it was Mokuba when the door opened on it's own and shut again. I'd barely moved my food from me when I froze. "What is that?"

Mokuba was holding something fuzzy and black with some brown and white spots of fur around it's head and paws. He was smiling as if it were the best thing in the world. "It's a puppy. Kashiwara-san said his dog had puppies and I told him I had to wait to get one. I gave the bunny I was taking care of to your secretary, since she was interested. If I can take care of a bunny, I can take care of a dog."

I had to make a note to myself to talk to Kashiwara Mitsuke. I had thought he was a more responsible man than that.

"Since I picked him out I thought that you could name him."

"Nuisance," I spoke. "He'll be nothing but one. Where do you think you're going to keep him?"

Mokuba frowned and turned the dog around, holding him up under the arms. Compared to my brother's small size, the 'puppy' looked rather large. "Jam-kun then." Mokuba took the dog wagging his tail and struggling towards him as a good sign and laughed, shifting so he was once more holding the creature in front of him so both of them could face me. "He's like our new little brother."

I had enough troubles with the one little brother I had, and at least that one could more or less follow orders. If the dog were trained, maybe my opinion would be different. Maybe. Mokuba was no dog trainer though so I knew this was going to end with me having the short end of the stick like I knew from the beginning. "I'm not the brother of a dog."

Mokuba came up and put him on my desk. I had to move what was left of my lunch off of it as quickly as the mutt went for it. I put it on the floor carefully, seeing my brother hold him back so the dog didn't bother me while he did this. Staring at me like that, I did have to think that they looked very much like one another, right down to the matted hair. "See, he's cute. Jam-kun, this is your older brother, though I'm going to be taking care of you." He let the dog go and I had to put my hand up to hold it as it made to jump on me through the foot that separated me from the desk. The idiotic dog continued to struggled to get on my lap as I shoved him back on the table.

"Mokuba, get him out of here right now!" I stood, scruffing the dog and handing him back. "I told you the office is no place for a puppy!"

Mokuba reached up slowly, taking the dog back and holding him to his chest, the creature not looking half as guilty as my brother did. " _I'm sorry. I'll take him back. I didn't know you'd be that mad about it."_

I scowled, watching him turn around and head out. I didn't mean to make him feel badly. I just wasn't an animal person and I didn't like dirty animals running around in a place where work needed to get done. "Wait," I spoke steadily when he had the door open. "I didn't say you had to take him back. Just don't bring him in the office again."

He petted the dog's head and turned to me, not looking anymore cheered when I told him he could actually keep the creature. " _No, I'll take him back. You don't like him, right?"_

"I didn't say I didn't like him. I don't like him _in here_." I tried to relax a little. It wasn't Mokuba I was mad at and it seemed the dog had made him happier than I'd seem him in a while now. I shouldn't have shot him down that hard. "He's… acceptable. You'll have to keep your word and take care of him though. I don't have time."

Finally he smiled. It eased some of my own guilt. "Thanks, Seto. Jam-kun will be a good dog, you'll see."

The door closed and I was able to sit down again with a heavy breath. I retrieved my food from where it was and worried about eating it on my desk without washing it first. It was in a container so I'd wash it and my hands afterward.

…

I shut the door to my separate personal office and had the dog from earlier running around my feet, jumping up towards me. It was late, almost two in the morning, and I was going to scold Mokuba for leaving the door between our rooms open when I saw him asleep on the black leather chair besides the couch, his arms half in his lap as if he'd been holding something.

I locked the door and bent down to pick up the dog. "You are not going to be sleeping in here with me." Mokuba was bad enough. I'd have to be sure not to wake him when I went to my meeting at seven.

I leveled my eyes at the small dog door that was between this room and the room my brother had converted into his own 'sleep over' room. I lifted the dog so I could look into its almost slate eyes, close to matching Mokuba's color. "You will stay here and you will leave me alone." I threw the dog in the other room anyway and shut the door.

The creature didn't listen and ran right back out the flap. There was nothing I could do besides try to block it from using it and I was too tired. If it annoyed me, I'd figure something out.

Laying down on the couch without changing, knowing I'd have to get up in a couple hours to shower and do that, I laid a hand over my forehead and closed my eyes. The dog immediately took my position as an invitation to a bed and jumped up onto my stomach. It wasn't as light as it looked. I swept it off with a hand. "Get off you nuisance."

It seemed excited more than ashamed and jumped up on me again after, this time not hitting as hard. I stared down at it as it curled up and stared at me on my stomach. Mokuba was sneaky, I realized. He'd picked out a dog that resembled himself.

Relenting, at least for now since I was too tired to do anything else, I pet its head and closed my eyes, feeling it shift only enough to go to sleep as well. There was nothing wrong with that.

…

I let out a breath when the dog jumped off of me. I wasn't sure I had even been asleep that long, since the room was still dark. I was making sure to lock up that dog tomorrow.

Even with my eyes closed, the scuffling sounds I heard after kept me awake and I had to wonder what it was doing. Then it started barking and I had to open my eyes, the loud, high-pitched noise, piercing to my over-tired mind.

I didn't miss the much larger figure in the room, even in the near dark. I didn't miss my brother either, held to him with something covering his mouth as he struggled. The dog caught my attention only because it was jumping around the larger figure and wouldn't shut up.

"Who are you!?" I demanded, standing myself, adrenaline doing the rest of the work. All of us stood still before I saw a knife or some sharp object, no light to reflect and give it any more definition.

" _Shut up, unless you want your brother to die."_

The voice was quiet and deep. I was sure I hadn't heard it before. There was security all over this place, most of which I'd developed myself. If someone wanted to get in, they had to know someone here or – since I could not tell whom it was - had to be someone who worked here.

I kept my voice low when I responded, since he'd never answered my question. " _Who are you and what do you want?"_

The dog was still barking around him and man kicked it, sending it a few feet away and shutting it up as it lost it's breath. It came right back at him, barking and now trying to bite at his legs.

"Shut up you stupid-"

That was all I needed. It may have been dark and I may have been sleeping just moments before, but there had been no light to ruin my night vision. Someone attacking in the dark would have thought to blind whoever they were trying to get the best of. I was quick and I was strong. I'd taken on some of the most heavily armed bodyguards because I never wanted something like this to happen. I couldn't trust anyone to protect my brother except me, so that's what I did.

I grabbed the man's arm, pulling Mokuba away from the sharp object and feeling it glance across my own arm. Once my brother was out of the way I punched him as hard as I could in the face. It knocked his senses from him as I twisted the arm with the knife around and heard it fall to the floor. A few more hits and its wielder lay next to it as I stood over him, making sure he stayed down.

Mokuba tore what appeared to be duct tape from his mouth, panting. "Seto! Are you okay?"

"Fine." I allowed my attention to wander, saw the cut and small amount of blood on my forearm. It wouldn't scar. "Are you okay?" I shot the question back at him.

Mokuba nodded and came up behind me, holding onto the back of my shirt and looking at his attacker. "I wonder what that was all about."

"Don't know." I would be finding out shortly though. The dog, either sensing that there was no longer a threat or not interested now that the man was at his level, walked over to us. Mokuba turned his attention from me to it, picking it up and holding it like a security blanket.

" _I'm sorry_." It sounded like Mokuba was about to cry and I turned towards him, wondering if he'd been hurt after all. I put my hand on his shoulder to try and get him to look up at me but he buried his face in the dog. He said a few things but I was unable to catch all of them except the last part, when he pulled away for some air. " _I just brought him into the family and now he had to get hurt. I shouldn't have done that."_

Ah. I looked at the creature myself. It didn't seem any worse for wear after the kick, but I knew I wouldn't be eating lunch tomorrow, since I owed the dog and a vet should look it at to be sure. "You didn't get him hurt. He's just a dog."

" _He's not just a dog!_ " Mokuba snapped. " _I told him he was my little brother and that I'd take care of him. You were right, I couldn't even do that."_

I looked at the both of them, the dog not seeming to care if it was hurt, trying only to lick Mokuba's face. I had to smile, hiding it in the darkness of the room. "You're wrong. Family doesn't pick family. He was supposed to be here. Sometimes little brothers have to protect their older brothers too."

Mokuba held the dog a little closer, shifting so he could pet it with one of his hands. It took a while but he smiled and turned to me. "I guess you're right. Thanks, Seto, for saving me." He cuddled his face against the dogs. "You too, Jam-kun."

I patted him on the shoulder, going over and taking the knife away incase the man woke up anytime soon. "I'm going to call the police and figure what all this was about in the morning. You two go lay down on the couch and try to go back to sleep."

Mokuba shook his head. "I'll wait for you. You have a meeting in the morning, with those people from Kono Tech, don't you? If you can stay up I can too."

It looked like I wouldn't be waiting with the police and getting my own answers. Normally I would let Mokuba wait for me. I had things to do and he understood that. I did have that meeting as well though, and I'd have to cover up the small cut. I'd be getting little enough sleep as it was and I wasn't tired now.

The officers I called in came and left, and Mokuba spent most of the time cooing over the puppy to make sure it wasn't too badly hurt. I cleaned and bandaged my arm in between all of this and made sure the police knew to call me when the man was being questioned.

I sat on the edge of the couch once they were gone, seeing the sun come up. It was a little after five and I'd need to be up and ready by six to shower, eat, and make sure everything was set up.

Mokuba, instead of laying down on the couch beside me, mostly sat up so that he could lean against me, his head on my chest as he let out a heavy breath and looked like he was about to fall asleep. The puppy had been in his arms so it ended up on my lap.

The world was conspiring to get me to miss this meeting. I had to smile and close my eyes as well though, a hand going to rest on the dog as I checked it over myself. Maybe having a puppy in the office wouldn't be the worst thing after all.

 _Good job, little brother._

…

…

…

 **AN** : If anyone is wondering where the name came from, I used it from the katakana words for 'nuisance' instead of the English word (the characters being 'ja' and 'ma), since they'd be speaking Japanese


End file.
